


Ephemeral (or Hayfever Kiss)

by Anzunyan (Celestiaru)



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, hayfever is a bitch, i love my bbys ok, i think, poor poor mao, very self-indulgent, wholesome relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-25 01:35:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14368074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celestiaru/pseuds/Anzunyan
Summary: On a spring afternoon, Mao and Ritsu are the only ones in the student council room and even with closed windows, Mao suffers from hayfever.Which is really unfair because he really just wants to kiss Ritsu.





	Ephemeral (or Hayfever Kiss)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm suffering (not from hayfever but) so I needed something cute.

Ritsu knows it’s springtime because the cherry trees on the school grounds are in full bloom. It is getting warmer, the sun is already unbearable and everything gets more colorful.

Plus, Mao is getting increasingly busy because the school year is about to end and he effectively is student council president by now, with Eichi being busy with graduating and all.

The dark-haired (vampire) boy watches the butterflies and bees searching for freshly blooming flowers to get their sweet nectar (and more annoyingly, wasps and flies and mosquitos basically everywhere else). Petals of soft rose color gently rain down, dancing through the warm spring air before they eventually land on the ground.

Cherry blossoms are the epitome of ephemerality, of time passing, of beginnings and endings.

“A--choo!”

Also they mark the beginning of Mao having to take a lot of anti-allergy medicine and more often than not wearing a medical mask as precaution and to hide his constantly running, red nose.

“We didn’t even open the windows, why is everything itching so badly....” Mao sniffs miserably as he sorts through some files to sign them. He and Ritsu are the only ones left in the student council office. They let everyone go early because it is such a nice day and because Ritsu agreed to help Mao with the remaining work. 

Ritsu really just wanted to avoid the sun and with Mao busy, no-one would carry him if he collapsed, so spending time indoors with Mao was like beating two birds with one stone.

“You should hear Corgi at our home. Anija was out of tissues and even went out into the sun to get new ones for him. He didn’t make it. He died. The funeral is this weekend.”

“Ricchan,” Mao tries to sound reproaching but can’t help but smile amused at the morbid joke. The Sakuma brothers’ kind of affection to each other will not really change, huh. Ritsu will always make it sound like he wishes for his brother’s death, or wouldn’t mind him dying even if it is the furthest from the truth. This simply has become the way for Ritsu to show his affection to Rei.

“...well, he looked dead when we found him collapsed in front of the house. Your sister informed us.”

“Ah and she didn’t tell me…” Mao says dejected. His communication with his sister hasn’t been the best lately, with him being busy and her being in the age where she is not interested in sharing her stories with her big brother. He sure sometimes feels like he is more at home at the Sakuma’s than he feels at his own. But if he was perfectly honest, that is really fine, too. Ritsu is indeed practically family to him.

The redhead smiles fondly, briefly glancing at his childhood friend (boyfriend), though Ritsu cannot see it behind the mask. The boy was busy sorting back the books and binders for Mao, anyway. Seeing him earnestly work to help Mao wouldn’t have been possible a year ago probably and it fills Mao’s heart with pride seeing Ritsu having grown so much.

“Maa-kun, you’re staring.” Ritsu chuckles when despite the mask hiding it, he can see Mao flushing red as his hair. “I know I’m handsome and that you can’t get enough of me, but if you don’t do your work, we might be stuck here longer and I can tell you just want to get home and rest because you’re feeling dizzy from sneezing and blowing your nose.”

Ritsu has always been observant, but lately he is also even considerate. Not always childish and demanding, he has been getting better at trusting Mao and becoming truly a person Mao could rely on to look after his back.

“Maa-kun.”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry! You’re irresistible and you and I both know it.” Mao uses an offhand tone but they know Mao is at least half honest, too.

Ritsu feels like teasing Mao, but knowing his childhood friend and love is stressed from work, school and the hayfever, he restrains himself, simply blowing a kiss with a wink at him. “I love you.”

It is, despite the teasing undertone, so gentle, so genuine and sincere that Mao stops in his track, his heart beating pleasantly fast and warm in his chest and the next words he whispers escape him before he can stop himself.

“I want to kiss you.”

Ritsu has keen senses. His nose and tongue are the most acute ones but his hearing is pretty accurate, too. So despite the medical mask covering Mao’s nose and mouth, swalloing a lot of the sound, he can pick up the words well enough. “Oya Maa-kun-”

“I mean-!” Noticing the sappy sentence, Mao abruptly stands up from the student council president chair, looking embarrassed but also honestly upset. “I’m a mess every spring season. I can’t use medications all the time because I really need them to work for our lives and when I hold speeches, so when we’re in private, I’m a mess with red, teary eyes, a running nose, constantly sneezing and being totally gross.”

As if to emphasize his words, his body prompts him to sneeze, but he continues afterwards as if he did not. 

“I really want you to kiss me but who would want to kiss a guy with a running nose.”

Ritsu was honestly a bit taken aback from the outburst. It was true they had not kissed in a while. With Mao wearing the mask and generally shying away from Ritsu when he barely moved close to kiss him on the cheek at least, Ritsu simply figured he would let him get better first. It is like when one of them would be sick, after all.

“I would.” And it is no lie. Ritsu stands up and rounds the desk to worm his arms around Mao’s lower back, pulling him closer with a smile. He expects Mao to pull away but he does not, instead the boy looks away mildly frustrated and slightly...longing.

“You do?”

“Hmm, well it’s true you’re kinda gross right now, but Anija is gross, too and he still sometimes climbs into my bed and I am just too tired to kick him out.” Mao’s raised eyebrow at being compared to his brother, or maybe the act he mentions, or maybe at everything Ritsu chose to say, makes Ritsu quickly steer back to the actual topic. “I mean, it’s not like you’re contagious. If you really wanted, you could have asked?”

The dark haired boy leans their foreheads against each other, black strands of hair tickling Mao’s forehead free of hair. He cannot smell Ritsu’s usual scent - curse his blocked nose - but his sensitive skin can feel Ritsu’s warmth that always feels pleasant and not too hot and it caresses him. Red eyes look into teary green before Ritsu presses a sweet kiss to Mao’s covered mouth.

It is an utterly weird feeling. The sensation is off and it is not satisfying, yet Mao can faintly make out the softness of Ritsu’s lips against his. Maybe it is a memory, an illusion, but it makes Mao’s heart jump happily for a moment.

Ritsu, noticing how Mao’s green eyes light up a bit, pulls away with a smile. “...honestly, though, Maa-kun. You always think of others first, you forget yourself. You should be more selfish sometimes.”

Hearing it from Ritsu, the probably most selfish person after all these rich kids in this school, enables Mao and he daringly pulls down his mask, surprising Ritsu by kissing him back feverently. His hayfever sensitive lips feel Ritsu’s warm ones with more intensity than ever and he nips on his lower lip briefly before pulling away, enjoying Ritsu’s astonished look before it returns to his usual calm, eyes half-lid gaze, smiling and a soft blush adorning his pale cheeks.

Mao pulls the mask back up, not even sure why because he can’t hide his blush at all.

“Eww, I think I have Maa-kun snot on my lips-”

“WELL I’m sorry!!!” Mao, embarrassed and panicking, shoves a tissue at Ritsu, who takes it amused. The redhead turns away, already feeling some regret at acting on impulse but Ritsu’s chuckling but loving voice immediately makes him forget the negative thoughts.

“It’s a joke, Maa-kun. I think it was nice. I like assertive Maa-kun. You really should be more selfish sometimes.”

Ritsu wraps his arms around Mao from behind, resting his chin on the base of Mao’s shoulder and neck and hums. “You are allowed to be more selfish with me, after all.”

“I want to be. More selfish, I mean. But only with you.” Mao admits.

“Then be. Please be. It makes me feel special.”

“You _are_ special, Ricchan. Don’t ever doubt it.”

“Don’t give me reasons to.” Ritsu chuckles, tightening the hug and he can feel Mao touching his hands in the front, intertwining their fingers as if to say he would never. In this close proximity, they don’t need words, they just needed to feel each other, feel comfortable in each other’s presence. They have known each other for so long already, the existence to the other has become so natural they once almost forgot to appreciate that they _are_ special for each other and it does not hurt to show.

Through the windows they can see cherry blossom petals fluttering down steadily through the setting sunlight rays.

“...oh damn, it’s already this late??” Mao exclaims, freeing himself from Ritsu’s arms and turning back to the pile of work still left on the desk.

Ritsu watches Mao get to work, so he quietly returns to his desk, too, to finish what he offered to help. 

Mao’s hayfever was ever-returning but also ephemeral. This moment may have been fleeting, too, but at least Ritsu genuinely hopes, Mao being selfish with Ritsu in a good way, Mao being with Ritsu, them being special for each other in general, would be a long lasting thing.

**Author's Note:**

> Embarrassed assertive, selfish Mao (to Ritsu) is my kink and this may have been pure fluff but I want to see that in a nsfw setting, too.
> 
> @ hapiele when do we get June bride(groom) ritsumaos


End file.
